International Research Journal of Biochemistry and Bioinformatics

Abstract

Childhood obesity is a major public health challenge of the 21st century, with lifelong health consequences. The Objectives are: (1) to assess the effect of the child’s knowledge of food, and food preferences on the child’s body mass index (BMI). (2) to investigate the relationship between the child’s BMI and the mother’s nutritional knowledge and attitude towards healthy food. Data collection was carried out from November 2017 to February 2018. A multistage stratified cluster random sampling technique was used. Four schools were selected based on size and equal numbers of participants were included from each cluster. From each grade, one class was selected randomly. Out of total 442 students measured BMI, A total of 116 cases and 232 controls were included in the study. The weight and height were recorded, BMI calculated, and the students were divided into obese/ overweight group and the normal weight group from which cases and control randomly selected thereafter. Data were collected by face to face interview with the girl, and a self-administrated questionnaire was sent to the student's mother Results were presented as adjusted Odds Ratio (aOR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI).

After controlling for the confounding variables, more healthy food preferences in children and higher mother's knowledge were associated with 77% and 51% reduced odds of obesity (aOR = 0.23 95% CI 0.09–0.64 and aOR = 0.49 95% CI 0.33– 0.71).

Healthy food preferences among girls and adequate nutritional knowledge among their mothers were significantly associated with decreased obesity in girls. Forest plot showing an adjusted odds ratio of overweightobesity and 95% confidence interval for different risk factors.